Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic French thriller gets a Hollywood makeover in this glossy remake. Guy Baran (Chazz Palminteri) is the dull, loutish headmaster of a private school that has seen better days. While Guy oversees the day to day operations, the school is actually owned by his wife Mia (Isabelle Adjani), whose spirit has been crushed by Guy's casual cruelty and whose health is frail. Guy has been openly having an affair with one of his teachers, Nicole Horner (Sharon Stone), who has almost as much contempt for Guy as Mia. Mia and Nicole eventually join forces against their common enemy and plan to murder him and conceal the evidence. However, while the killing goes as planned, Guy's body mysteriously disappears from the carefully chosen spot where it was dumped, and when a chatty detective, Shirley Vogel (Kathy Bates) begins asking questions, both women begin to wonder who knows what about their murderous scheme. This was the third remake of Les Diaboliques, following two made-for-TV adaptations, Reflection of Murder and House of Secrets. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Shirley Knight - Edie Danziger; Diana Bellamy - Ms. Vawze; Allen Garfield - Leo Katzmann; Adam Hann-Byrd - Erik Pretzer; Clea Lewis - Lisa Campos; Stephen Liska - PHP Officer; Donal Logue - Video Photographer; Zachary Mott - Howie; Bingo O'Malley - Gannon; Jeffrey Abrams - Video Photographer #2; O'Neal Compton - Irv Danziger; Kate Young - Photo Shop Clerk; James Kisicki - Rear-ender; Cory Pattack - Nuñez; Jesse Sky Ross - Hall Monitor; Sophia Salguero - Maid; Hank Stohl - Morgue Cop; Kevin Vinay - Desantis
Credit
Dennis Bradford - Art Director, Dennis Bridges - Art Director, Kirsten Welles - Associate Producer, Gary Daigler - Co-producer, Michael Kaplan - Costume Designer, Stephen Lee Davis - First Assistant Director, K.C. Colwell - First Assistant Director, Jeremiah S. Chechik - Director, Leslie Dilley - Second Unit Director, Carol Littleton - Editor, Gary Barber - Executive Producer, Bill Todman, Jr. - Executive Producer, Chuck Binder - Executive Producer, Jerry Offsay - Executive Producer, Randy Edelman - Composer (Music Score), Randy Edelman - Songwriter, Dennis Maitland II - Songwriter, Dennis Eger - Makeup, Ronnie Spector - Makeup, Craig Haagensen - Camera Operator, Leslie Dilley - Production Designer, Peter James - Cinematographer, James G. Robinson - Producer, Marvin Worth - Producer, Michael Seirton - Set Designer, Don Roos - Screenwriter, Leslie Dilley - Technical Director, Pierre Boileau - Book Author, Thomas Narcejac - Book Author
The wife and mistress (Stone and Adjani) of a cruel school master (Palminteri) collaborate in a carefully planned and executed attempt to murder him. The plan goes well until the body, which has been strategically dumped, disappears. The strain starts to tell on the two women as a retired police investigator (Bates) who is looking into the disappearance on a whim begins to think that they know more than they are telling, and further complications arise when their victim is seen, apparently alive and well by several of the pupils.
